As reported recently the Gardaí are dropping their Irish language requirement for recruits from ethnic communities. Makes sense, Ireland is becoming more multi-cultural and should have a more representative police force. However, there has actually been an objection to the dropping of the requirement but not from where you’d expect. iMeasc, an organisation of Irish-speaking immigrants, have objected because the language would be marginalised if the requirement was dropped. They also say that it’s “crucial that immigrants be given equal treatment and at least the opportunity to obtain the same common cultural and social reference points as their Irish counterparts and that they not be shut out from the Irish-language because of their ethnic background.”
Morning Ireland did a feature on our new Irish speakers, you can listen to it here: Focus on ‘Gaeilge’: The new Irish-speaking Irish
Hat tip to Back Seat Drivers for this one.
Irish language requirement for Gardaí – complaint
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OK, there’s no need of an Irish-speaking policeman in Dublin city so it’s right and fair to hire a non-Irish native and let him work as a policeman.
But are we/you sure that this non-native is prepared enough to understand english well? And will he be able to cope with non-english speaking people, ie tourists, that struggle to make themselves clear?
A mother language officer can easily guess what they are saying, an immigrant could find it hard to understand a distorted english, since he’s not english in the first place.
What I’m telling here is that certain job positions should be given to native people for the simple reason that only a native can be really helpful in every aspect.
And this is true in any country of the world.
Besides, the fact that the submission to the Minister of Justice come from Irish-speaking immigrants is a clear sign that the interest in mantaining certain cultural traditions is even stronger in other parts of the world.
This should be an invitation to think about it more deeply!
It’s a good question to ask if the non-native has good enough English … but I think to apply for the Gardaí you would need to be resident in the country for 5 years, plus each candidate would go through normal interview procedures before being accepted. If they couldn’t speak English good enough then their application could/should be rejected.
Why would you not need Irish-speaking gardaí in Dublin? If you are an Irish speaker in Dublin, and Irish is the national language and one of the official languages of the state I think the Irish speaker should expect any state official to be able to serve them in their own language if that is what they want no matter how good their English. You can learn a language.
Well Dogfael, although i’m not an Irish speaker, I am a big supporter of the language and I certainly think that Irish speakers should be able to get all services through Irish if they so desire.
However, even though there are quite many Irish speakers in Dublin few seem to be using it in public.
In a way Antonio’s point is valid. Dublin is more multi-cultural than ever with a lot more languages been spoken than ever before. English is the one language which unites all.
One good step would be for all Irish speakers to try to use the language a lot more in public and not just in Irish language cafés, put it out there, get it noticed because at the moment you’d hear more Polish than Irish and that’s not doing the language much good IMHO.